Friendly called off

18 July 2010 08:33

Liverpool's friendly against Al-Hilal was called off last night. The Reds were supposed to play their first pre-season friendly of the new campaign last night but a torrential downpour during the day meant the referee was forced to call off the game because of a waterlogged pitch. "The referee had no choice," said Roy Hodgson. "Everyone tried very hard to get the game on but it wasn't possible. We wanted to play, Al -Hilal wanted to play, but to play a football match you need the ball to be rolling properly around the pitch. "It wasn't doing that and so it was impossible. We tried everything but you can't fight the weather and even if we had started the game it would have been played at the limit, and I'm not sure we would have finished it. "Obviously this affects our preparations. We were going to play today and have a warm down day tomorrow but now Sunday will be a training day instead. "Most of all I'm disappointed for the supporters who came to watch Liverpool play but there was nothing we could do."